27 September 2013 - QA 7

Sir, I have very few desires, but what next, in the path of spirituality?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

: In the path of spirituality, what is next is contentment. When you have contentment, you are not burning with some small desire. If at all you have a desire, you have a very big desire, like, I want everyone to be happy, I want the whole world to be peaceful. These are the desires you should have!

Small desires should become bigger desires, and bigger desires don’t bring you tension. Only small things bring you tension.

The mind always goes for something that is bigger; some bigger joy, bigger bliss. It is its nature, you cannot avoid it. The mind wants to have something bigger, and spirituality gives you that bigger joy, bigger happiness.

There is one kind of happiness that you get by taking; as children we all have it. However, a grown up person has happiness in giving; like a mother at home. She enjoys cooking for everybody, but when she is all by herself she doesn’t make five or ten different varieties of food and eat. She never does that. She will have a cup of tea or coffee and munch something. So there is the joy in giving. Authors and literary giants have this joy that I gave something to society, I wrote something. There is a joy in it; go for that.